The Book Ninja, by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

Failed writer Frankie (short for Frankston, the train line on which she was conceived), works in a bookshop owned by her best friend Cat. Her love life is as much of a disaster as her career so she decides to take action and starts leaving copies of her favourite novels on trains, with a message to potential dates near the end. This flawed plan is as fraught as it sounds but miraculously results in a series of dates, which she uses to regain her mojo by writing a blog about it. At the same time she starts to fall for a man who walks in to the bookshop, but has really terrible taste in books. This is a very Melbourne book, firmly located in the hip inner suburbs and loaded with literary allusions, which sometimes become a bit too much – yeah we get it, you read a lot. All the characters are larger than life to the point of caricature, especially Frankie’s mother, Putu, and her potential boyfriend, Sunny Day (yes really). It all seems good fun – a light and easy read that will move fast to its inevitable chick lit conclusion. Unfortunately it starts to drag about half way through and takes way too long to get there, with far too much self-flagellation along the way.